Our CSA wedding 8/6/11

Let me start by saying that our wedding was like a dream come true! It was honestly the best day of my life and i can't thank Couples enough for every thing they did. So here's my step by step process for all your brides-to-be out there, so you can have an idea of what to expect.

We got there on thursday afternoon and check in went VERY smoothly, for us. Unfortunately, many of our guests (30 total) who arrived earlier that morning had STILL not been able to get into their rooms. Many of them were very upset and annoyed after many hours of traveling. I'm not sure why that was, but we got our keys and we were brought to our room. We booked the great house jacuzzi suite and it was worth every penny! It was huge! And it was in the same building as feathers/patios/computer room/casino (trouble!), which we totally loved!
When we checked in we made out feathers reservation for THAT NIGHT! (WHOOO!) and got our card that we were going to meet with Alecia for our wedding meeting the next morning at 10am.
So that morning after we did our workout, got our smoothies across the street andwent our meeting with Alecia.
This is where the awesome-ness REALLY kicks in. The wedding coordinator talks you through every choice that is possible,; wedding location (beach or garden), cake size, decorations, flowers and when we wanted our reception afterward. We decided that we would have our ceremony at 10 am then do about 40 minutes of pictures on the beach then have our cocktail hour reception at 11 amish. And the best part was that they let us have our reception at the AURA LOUNGE! This news made me scream with happiness!! We hired the dj for 2 hours and had the dance party we really wanted! Anyway.. i digress... We had a bunch of stuff that we had brought with us to the meeting (i.e. bubbles, program fans, cake topper, guest book). Everything we gave Alecia was "No problem!" I feel like i could have asked her to do cartwheels and she wouldve done it if we asked her to. She had the answer to every question and everything we wanted to do, was no problem.
I had chosen a color scheme already so with the flowers i knew i wanted the purple orchids and some white and yellow roses. I said "tell the florist to make it pretty". I was sooooo happy with the flowers. It was better than i expected . And the best part about Alecia was that she was so knowledgeable about everything! I had many of my own opinions but she knows from experience what works and what didn't work. I changed a few ideas and i loved them all!!! So that meeting took about an hour and a half. Then we headed over to the photo area.
So we took the walk over to the photo desk and they had this back office just for wedding people which i had no idea existed! (and it was AC thank goodness!) . So they had a million options for photos. After reading the message boards, a lot of people suggested "dont go nuts.. they'll sit in a book and you'll hardly look at them". THank goodness we booked our trip a while back... we were able to do the "deluxe photo package' for only $650. We got 30 5x7s and 6 8x10 in an album AND we got the dvd edited. We also paid $90 extra for all the footage, which was unedited. We weren't super pleased with that because for some reason our first dance wasn't on there and a lot of great moments weren't caught... but what can you do. In retrospect i probably would've talked to the camera guy that day and just said.. please keep rolling bc we're going to buy all the footage.
So now its wedding day- I wake up at the crack of dawn because of course, i couldn't sleep. I kenw that would happen thats why i went with the earliest wedding time. I headed over to the salon with my mother and mother-in-law and got my hair and makeup done at the salon. Both of those ladies got their hair done as well and it came out great!! I'm very very pleased with the quality of work with my hair and makeup. I was a little uptight that morning and unfortunately they didn't really help with that... they were very serious and didn't do much chatting, which is what i think we do a lot in the states. My hair and make up took a little longer than i was expecting so around 945 am i headed back to my room to get dressed. I wasn't rushed, per se, i was just hoping that i would have a little more time to soak in the moment. But it was okay. My sisters got me into my dress and a few minutes late we started the walk that felt like it took forever to get to the ceremony location. We waited for everyone to get seated and the music started and away we went.
I thought i was going to be fine... i'm not a crier... well as soon as i saw my soon to be husband at the end of the isle, we both started tearing up.
The minister was great! I think he was really able to 'read' us and he knew we are young and peppy and sarcastic and he made a few jokes and really made it feel like our special event instead of words that have been read off the page 100s of times. The ceremony was great and the weather was great! But let me warn you... it was HOT!!!!!!! I was drenched under my dress and the guys were soaked! A few of the pics we didn't choose just because we so shiny and drenched! So the ceremony ended, we signed the certificate and then we went right to pictures on the beach.
The photographer was good. Again, not the friendlist personality but i think he just wanted to get the job done. Like i said before, we had 30 people there so there were a lot of pictures to take. In retrospect, i wish we would've spent a little more time with this but everyone was sooooo hot, we just wanted to get the pics over with. There were a few pics that i really wanted to have, like with my grandparents, but i didn't love how i looked because we only took 2 or 3 of that shot, but i was just so hot we just kept moving right along. So anywayyyy... pictures done!
We then headed to our reception at the Aura Lounge. We got to line up and do the whole... Introducing the parents of the bride... groom... grandparents... and so on.. and then we got to do our "introducing the newest couple in jamaica... Ashleigh and Thomas Hahn!!!" Thats the moment that i really wanted... maybe because i'm a ham or maybe because i just love the fact that everyone is there for us and was cheering and supporting us. Paul our DJ was AMAZING!!! We specified before hand on a form he gave us all the dances we wanted (ie mother son dance... couples dance..etc) and that we wanted dance music going the whole time! He did a great job!! I don't have a single complaint about him. At one point i even asked him if i could sing along to a song and he handed me the mic! So awesome!! Dj's wont always do that. Alecia was there the whole time so when i needed her to help me take off my veil and gather people toegther for things she was ready to go. I feel like i'm rambling but i remember reading everyone's reviews and i loved every word of it! So i'm going to keep going!
So we went through the toasts and cake cutting and we had our final dance and before we knew it our two hour reception was over. Every one kept saying that it was the perfect amount of time. No sitting around, doing everything that is normally done but not feeling rushed. It really was perfect. Another great thing about the reception was that they had people walking around with bottles of champagne and they were constantly filling up everyones glasses. So much so that my maid of honor and sister were both hammered by 1 oclock in the after noon! lol!! I had a nice buzz going but i hadn't really eaten so i needed to get lunch.
After the reception we had them put together tables for us at the palms and most of the people went and changed and then met us for lunch. after that we took a nap!! lol and then we had a private dinner at feathers together, which was amazing as usual! We then met up a lot of people at the piano bar that evening for some more partying. My maid of honor never made it there!! lol
The next day we had our private dinner on the beach which was $170. Because it was our wedding, i would say that it was definitely worth it. They decorated so nicely and the food was TO DIE FOR! It was sooooo good. We sprayed ourselves with bug spray like crazy but we still ended up with some bites. A lot of our family left with many dozens of bug bites which was strange.. we had never had this issue and we had been to couples 2 other times. Besides the bugs the private dinner was amazing...
We went back to the photo desk and got our photos and album and we were super happy with them. They put them in the album and it looked so nice!!
ANyway... there 's so much going through my head with this stuff but we had THE BEST time. We were so sad to leave couples when we had to. Please email me if you have any more questions @ Swimminash@hotmail.com

Quick question... What time was your hair/makeup scheduled? I am just doing my hair at the salon and doing my own make up, but want to be sure I have time... I am also getting married at 10am and my hair appt. is for 7:45am.

Thanks for all the details of your wedding day. Although, we will be getting married at CSS, it really helped calm my nerves as to what to expect when we go in November. Your pictures are beautiful. Congratulation and best wishes for a lifetime of happiness

Great review! Couples also posted it on the FB page for couples resorts. I looked at your pics and they are adorable. I think the DJ was an awesome idea. Wish I had done that. Also - I totally agreed with your comments about the salon people not being very chatty. I definitely like getting my hair done in the states better Congrats and wishing you a lifetime a happiness

Quick question... What time was your hair/makeup scheduled? I am just doing my hair at the salon and doing my own make up, but want to be sure I have time... I am also getting married at 10am and my hair appt. is for 7:45am.